Lean Impact Jour­neyPrototyping phaseMVP developmentTest­ing your financ­ing strat­e­gy: Ready to pitch
Develop your MVP: Test your solution under real-world conditions Putting your MVP to the test: Measuring your startup’s impact Developing a funding strategy for your impact startup Testing your financing strategy: Ready to pitch MVP and funding strategy: Validate, optimize, grow
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Test­ing your financ­ing strat­e­gy: Ready to pitch

Test­ing your fund­ing strat­e­gy is a cru­cial step to make sure it’s both com­pelling and real­is­tic.
It gets you ready for real-life fundrais­ing rounds and helps build trust with investors and fun­ders.

This sec­tion is for you if …

  • you’re plan­ning to launch an impact start­up or already work­ing on one with your team.
  • you can clear­ly define your tar­get group, the prob­lem you’re tack­ling, your solu­tion and its impact.
  • you’ve built and test­ed a val­i­dat­ed pro­to­type.
  • you have ini­tial proof of impact at the out­come lev­el.
  • you’ve iden­ti­fied a mar­ket for your solu­tion and devel­oped an ini­tial busi­ness mod­el.
  • you’ve built and test­ed a min­i­mum viable prod­uct (MVP).
  • you can track the impact of your solu­tion on both out­put and out­come lev­els.
  • you have an idea of how to scale your solu­tion.
  • you’ve devel­oped a fund­ing strat­e­gy and a pitch deck.

Not quite there yet?
Check out the sec­tion that fits your cur­rent stage

In this sec­tion, you’ll learn how to …

  • pitch your fund­ing strat­e­gy to investors and fun­ders.
  • get feed­back on your finan­cial plan­ning.
  • refine your pitch deck accord­ing­ly.

This sec­tion is all about shap­ing your busi­ness mod­el and bring­ing it to life – plus mak­ing sure the finan­cial side of your solu­tion adds up.

We cov­er impact-dri­ven issues in more detail here.

Get feed­back on your fund­ing strat­e­gy from poten­tial investors

Talk­ing to experts, get­ting tar­get­ed feed­back from investors and reg­u­lar­ly review­ing your progress will help you spot weak points in your fund­ing strat­e­gy – and improve it over time.

1. Talk to experts

One of the most impor­tant steps is con­nect­ing with experts. Finan­cial advi­sors or investors can help you eval­u­ate your strat­e­gy from an out­side per­spec­tive, check legal require­ments and iden­ti­fy poten­tial risks. The insights you gain will help you fine-tune your plan­ning and make sure it meets mar­ket expec­ta­tions.

2. Test your pitch with dif­fer­ent audi­ences

The next step is to test your pitch deck – not just with poten­tial investors, but also with stake­hold­ers, your tar­get group and experts from accel­er­a­tors or start­up hubs. Ask for spe­cif­ic feed­back on your argu­men­ta­tion and finan­cial pro­jec­tions. Work­ing with pitch coach­es is also a great way to sharp­en your pre­sen­ta­tion skills and make your mes­sag­ing more com­pelling.

Smart ques­tions to ask investors:

  • How do you assess our fund­ing gap and how we plan to use the cap­i­tal?
  • Do you think our growth fore­casts and finan­cial pro­jec­tions are real­is­tic?
  • What risks do you see in our busi­ness mod­el?
  • What oth­er fund­ing sources or mod­els would you rec­om­mend?
  • How do you rate our financ­ing mix and diver­si­fi­ca­tion strat­e­gy?
  • What mile­stones or KPIs should we aim for in this round of fund­ing?
  • How do you view our val­u­a­tion and the terms of this round?
  • How do you assess our strat­e­gy for main­tain­ing a com­pet­i­tive edge?
  • What’s your take on our plans to expand our investor base and evolve our fund­ing mod­el?

Keep an eye on how your fund­ing strat­e­gy plays out

A suc­cess­ful fund­ing strat­e­gy doesn’t end with rais­ing mon­ey – it needs to be mon­i­tored and adjust­ed con­tin­u­ous­ly.

1. Track and ana­lyze your finan­cial met­rics

Start with reg­u­lar cash flow analy­sis. A pos­i­tive and grow­ing cash flow is a good sign your strat­e­gy is work­ing and your liq­uid­i­ty is under con­trol. Keep an eye on key finan­cial fig­ures like EBIT, EBIT­DA or oper­at­ing cash flow. Com­pare these val­ues with your goals and indus­try bench­marks to spot weak­ness­es or areas for improve­ment.

Check whether you’ve met your fund­ing tar­gets. Were you able to secure the cap­i­tal on time? Does the actu­al fund­ing mix match your orig­i­nal plan? Ask­ing these ques­tions ear­ly helps you make adjust­ments and respond flex­i­bly to new chal­lenges.

Take a close look at the total costs of your financ­ing, includ­ing inter­est and fees, and eval­u­ate whether the results jus­ti­fy the expense . At the same time, your strat­e­gy should be flex­i­ble enough to respond to shifts in the mar­ket or to bring in addi­tion­al cap­i­tal when need­ed.

Use the insights you gain to keep improv­ing your fund­ing strat­e­gy. Be well-pre­pared for your next fund­ing round – with a com­pelling sto­ry, sol­id num­bers and a clear impact promise.

Next chap­ter: Val­i­dat­ing your fund­ing strat­e­gy and MVP

Ide­al­ly, by now you’ve reviewed both your financ­ing strat­e­gy and your min­i­mal viable prod­uct (MVP) – as well as your impact (see “Putting your MVP to the test: Mea­sur­ing your startup’s impact”) .

In the next step, we’ll bring every­thing togeth­er. That way, you’ll ensure your solu­tion, busi­ness mod­el and fund­ing strat­e­gy are aligned and ready for your next growth phase.